Arin was grinning like an idiot as she followed Roldar down the hallway.
When she had uttered those words to the boys earlier, she had only casually stated that to assert dominance and power so they don't come for her.
And she merely blurted things out that would make her look good in the moment.
But here she was now, following Roldar who had informed her when he came to get her, that the maesters might grant Arin her own individual room.
Arin stopped smiling and put on her neutral expression mask when they got to a hall. In the hall there were four men who sat down on a high table.
Arin immediately recognized the robes they wore. Two men from the hightable had been the one to sever Orlo's spiritual veins. With the headmaster of the school dead, these must be the councils who were now in charge of the activities that go on in the school.
Arin bowed when she noticed Roldar bow, and straightened when she noticed him straightened. She was still yet to understand how things work here.
"This is the male, Grand Maesters," Roldar announced. Then he glanced at her. "Introduce yourself."
Arin stepped forward, forcing her voice lower. "My name is Arin."
A long, assessing silence followed.
Finally, the elder at the center spoke. "Where are you from?"
"I'm an orphan," Arin replied. "I don't know my birthplace. I move around to survive."
One of the Maesters snorted. "You do not look like an orphan. Your skin is… polished."
"I'm an orphan, not a beggar. I take care of myself," Arin said. She kept her tone flat, but she could feel the sarcasm slipping through. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice.
Another Maester leaned forward. "Why seek entry to this Academy? What changed?"
"Growing up, I didn't know anything about magic or spiritual veins," Arin said. "Only recently did I discover that I had spiritual veins after I tried it for the first time, and someone suggested I come here to learn how to use them."
"And who is this someone?"
"A person." This time around Arin didn't bother to hide her sarcasm.
"Why would this male help you check if you have magic if they are a random person?"
Arin noticed how fast they assumed the stranger was a man. Or how they were twisting her words on purpose to see if she'd slip. Either way, this was starting to feel less like a check-in and more like an interrogation. Still, she answered.
"No one helped me check," Arin said. "I saw a male doing it to impress some girls. And it worked for him. So I tried it, hoping I'd get some attention too. It worked, but not in the way I wanted. The male noticed instead, asked about my veins, and told me to come here. So… that's why I'm here."
She added a nervous shrug and tried her best to look embarrassed about her "failed flirting attempt," hoping it would sell the personality she had been pushing since the moment she walked in.
"Yeah… we short males don't get much luck with the females," one of the council members muttered. When he realized how casually he had spoken, he straightened and cleared his throat. "Can you show us how you checked your spiritual vein? We'd like to see it for ourselves."
"Actually," Roldar stepped in, "he isn't good at focusing on his core energy yet. So I'll have to check for him."
The council members exchanged quiet, annoyed whispers. Arin caught fragments of their words. Comments about how strange it was for a male her age to not know how to activate his core, and other complaints she tried to ignore.
When their murmuring stopped, one of them spoke. "Proceed, Roldar."
Roldar bowed, then turned to Arin. He motioned for her to extend her arms. She did, keeping her expression steady as he pointed at her forearms. A moment later, her spiritual veins came into view. It was clear, bright, and impossible for anyone in the room to ignore.
"Impossible!"
"I've never seen anything like it."
"What does this mean for him?"
Questions like that and many more flew across the lips of the council members. They leaned in, discussing and dissecting the possibility like she wasn't standing right there… until Roldar spoke up.
"I brought him here because we've always welcomed students with exceptional abilities," Roldar said. "And since—"
"Yes, Roldar, you will be rewarded later," one of the elders cut in. "But first we must address the matter at hand."
"But there is no 'matter,'" Roldar insisted. "He has heavenly spiritual veins… and another type I do not recognize."
"Neither do we," the elder said. "But the late Headmaster might have been able to decode this."
The Maester turned away from the others and fixed his eyes on Arin. His tone sharpened.
"What can you do?"
All attention snapped to her at once.
Arin opened her mouth, then shut it again.
What part of I have never used magic did they not understand? she wondered.
All she knew about this world was that it relied on the core elemental attributes: fire, water, earth, and air. And Orlo, poor Orlo, had grown up with the most insignificant element in this world, which was air. He had still managed to become the most skilled knight and warrior because of his unusual way of wielding it. That was the only reason Arin knew anything at all.
She was still trying to figure out what to say when one of the Maesters spoke again.
"Most normal spiritual vein students have one element and need the actual substance present to use it," he said. Arin already knew that, but they did not know she knew, so she kept quiet and pretended this was her first time hearing it.
The Maester continued. "Heavenly users also have one element, but they can create and control it on their own. Now, if you are dual veined, we want to understand what that entails so we know where to place you. Above, or under."
Roldar turned to Arin with hopeful eyes. "Please do something," he mouthed.
Arin stared back at him, throat dry.
This is my chance. Arin thought as she closed her eyes and tried to focus on her core energy.
She thought about Irene. About Julio. And mostly about Orlo. If she got this right, it could help them. It could help her. It could even push her one step closer to going back to her own world.
A pressure started low in her stomach. It tightened, grew, and kept rising until it forced a small grunt from her. She held onto it as it built, heavier each second.
Please… just work.
The moment the pressure peaked, she released it.
A burst of energy shot out of her—sharp, loud, and impossible to ignore—making the Maesters, including Roldar, gasp out loud.